A Deathly Discovery
by Treefrog1
Summary: A Great Harlequin and his band of wanderers find an ancient threat awakening...
1. The Preparations

Jet l'Reed stared out at the twin sunset of the planet Anksh XII. It's twin suns setting at the same time was a beautiful site to behold, but Jet had more pressing buisness. He had heard that a Craftworld's scout force had been lost on this barren desert world. Harliquins such as himself and his tribe of wandering warriors/entertainers usually had no dealings with their craftworld cousins, but they were not evil like their dark relatives who raided randomly, and hearing a distress beacon from the Craftworld force, he had decided to take a look at what had trapped them on the desert warld of Anksh XII.  
  
Jet walked down the colourful corridors, glancing at the bright and complex patterns that wwere displayed on the walls. The whole ship was buzzing with energy, getting ready to set down on the lifeless, unforgiving world. He ganced at the data pad in his hand, and was surprised by the readings. According to their fresh data, Anksh had zero species of fauna and flora living on it. In all of his 185 mon-keigh (human) years of travelling, he had never come across a world with such an oxygen rich atmosphere that had no species of life. Even desert worlds should have some form of plannt or small rodent, even ameaba. But the scan had showed nothing, nothing at all. There was something not right here, and Jet wanted to find out what. He reached the ships 'Fighter and Lander' bay. The multicoulered door sweeped open without a sound, and he stepped in.  
  
The bay was huge, at least a quarter of a mile from one side to another. He got ont a small grav-platform and told it his destination. The platform lifted up, and swooped across the bay, and Jet looked over the countless ships below him, with people scurreing to and fro like restless ants. His tribe, the Alfaa, had grown in size and number ever since he had come to be their leader, a Great Harliquin. The platform flew lower, and finally landed next to a small lander covered in the tribes green, red, yellow and blue diamond signature pattern. He dismounted from the floating platform, which swiftly departed, heading back the the entrance it was stationed at. He climbed in the landing craft, greetedhis fellow warriors, and closed the transparent doors. 


	2. An unexpected landing

As the landing craft plummeted towards the surface of the barren desert planet, Anksh XII, Great Harlequin Jet l'Reed checked his weapons. His Neural Disruptor, a weapon that could melt a mans brains into a grey liquid within 20 feet, was fully charged. The Harlequins Kiss on his wrist was in full working order and ready to dice any enemies that got in Jet's way and his shruiken pistol was loaded with Bio-Explosive ammunition, though he had some normal ammo hanging from his belt, just in case. He was rocked violently as the craft hit the atmosphere, its boosters blasting away, slowing down their ascent as the ground loomed up below them. Suddenly, they were hit by a bolt of green light that disintegrated the pilot and three of their four boosters. The ship span wildly in mid air, until crashing onto the ground.  
  
When he awoke, Jet found himself back in the wrecked craft, shaken and with a massive headache. As he slowly came around, he unbuckled himself from his crumpled seat and looked around. Half of his men were dead, with grievous wounds, and half dried blood everywhere, like a sticky coating of paint slopped around the broken, bent walls of the ship. A few of his warriors had survived, coming around groggily, and he quickly tended to their wounds. Their equipment had not been damaged, being at the back of the craft, they found working jetbikes to ride upon. Stepping out of the busted doorway they found a sorry sight. All of the landing craft had been hit by the green energy bolts and Jet counted a total of fifteen men were left, including the ones from his ship. Gathering together they found that they could scavenge enough weapons for all of them. In addition to his weapons, which had miraculously survived the crash, the Great Harlequin found himself a sleek, light chainsword which he strapped on his back.  
  
Gathering together the remaining eleven Harlequin Troupes and four Death Jesters he chose three of the best riders to accompany him on the jetbikes, with the grinning face of the laughing god depicted on their hulls. They set of towards where the shots had come from, ready to avenge the death of their lost battle brothers and sisters.  
  
More to come in chapter 3. 


End file.
